Our research question encompasses the provision of potable water to the people in land-locked Uganda using a metal-organic framework (MOF) which may eliminate the most evident health-disparaging contaminants sensed in human bodies by ATOMS-equipped smart pills.

Uganda ranks as the country with the worst water supply, where nearly ?40% of the population has to travel more than 30 minutes to access safe drinking water? (?10 countries?). Due to its lack of clean water despite its proximity to Lake Victoria and its tropical climate and high humidity, Uganda appeared as the most potent location to deliver this project at. As a freshwater source, Lake Victoria was found to contain chemicals, bacteria, and a low quantity of oxygen with the increase of urbanization and population (WaterAid). Let alone, the water infrastructure was poorly maintained and attracted water-borne, hygiene-, and sanitation-related diseases like diarrhea, malaria, scabies, trachoma, and bilharzia which plague as much as 75% of the population (WaterAid). Currently, ?17% of all deaths in Uganda result from diarrhea (?Safe Water?). Nitrate, known to lead to methemoglobinemia (the lack of carrying capacities of oxygen in haemoglobin), is also prevalent in many cases of water contamination? (?PSEP?). The diagnostic pill will be testing for a multitude of these lethal inhibitors so that researchers and scientists can have access to this information and we will be able to decide on a location where the situation is most dire to begin with the provision of potable water.

These smart pills are revolutionary in the sense that they can effectively be used by medical personnel to track conditions such as pH levels, temperatures, and sugar concentrations, as well as the concentration of certain chemicals present throughout the gastrointestinal tract and other parts of the body. ATOMS (Addressable Transmitters Operated As Magnetic Spins) chips track these pills and triangulate where in the body these readings are specific to. The ATOMS have a surface area of nearly one and a half square millimeters, allowing for feasible and easy transportation. These small chips function through the use of magnetic field sensors similar to that of MRIs, wireless transmitters, and integrated antennas which in conjunction allow the ATOMS chip to wirelessly communicate the location of the smart pill.

Our project proposal aims to utilize the aforementioned technology as a means of diagnostic measurement of health conditions in different regions of Uganda. However, for the purposes of our group situation, we will have to modify this pre-existing technology to be able to identify exact identifications and measurements of harmful nitrates, chlorides, and sulfides responsible for water-borne diseases, such as diarrhea, cholera, and typhoid present in the GI tract. In order to compensate for the unequal distribution of safe water in Ugandan communities, with our new technology, we will conduct a randomized sample test of the population, by region, and specifically one out of every 500 Ugandan residents randomly selected will be tested, which would result in approximately eighty thousand people tested out of 40 million people in the total population. Our diagnosis is crucial because the conditions of the harmful chemicals found in the bodies of the residents are a direct result of the horrid quality of water that is available. We will be looking for abnormally high levels of harmful chemicals in the body as well as where these water-borne diseases may settle. This determines where we should focus our efforts on and build systems within the next phase of our project with the MOF technology (Metal Organic Frameworks) for the solution to our problem, which includes actual collection of water from the atmosphere. In conclusion, we will be using innovative biomedical imaging technology to  diagnose the regions in which we can make the largest difference with our limited resources.